El Taurino — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I love this place, so I’m really sorry to be writing a negative review. We all know the holidays are hectic but this goes beyond that. I placed an order for 2 dozen tamales at 9 this morning. Turn around time is 1.5 hours. Did some errand in the area, then decided to order the same thing over for my mom (2 separate orders not to be ready at same time). When placing the second order, the supervisor (Carina) on the phone wanted me to come in person and make a deposit. In all the years I’ve been coming here, including this morning, this has never been the case. She said people order but they don’t pick up and this is a large order. I told her I understand, but I’ve not ever been one of those people. She said she would make an exception. She asked what time will I be picking up order as I had told them originally between 11 and 12 and it was now 1203… I told her I’ll be there within 30 minutes. When I arrive to pick up order, I wait in line, I pay, and then they call me to window to tell me my order is NOT ready. They had electrical problems. It would have been helpful to know that before I rushed over to pick up the order. Ok, how long do I have to wait? 40 minutes… So the supervisor could have said that to me on the phone when I spoke to her instead of rushing me talking about you were supposed to pick them up by now?! So now I’m in my car with more than enough time to write this review. I told them they need a better ordering system. Deposit required? Phone payment should be allowed as not everyone may live in this area. How about taking names and phone numbers down as well? Spoke to like 3 different people but they all said that this cannot be done. Make thinks make sense please. Hopefully someone in management will see this.

Me encanta este lugar, pero hoy recibí mal servicio. Cuando pongan orden por teléfono, dejen su número de teléfono en caso de que los necesiten conseguir. Ellos no se lo van a pedir. También han comenzado a requerir un depósito para órdenes grandes de teléfono. (Inconvenientes para gente que no vive cercas de el restaurante). Hoy, ordené 2 dozenas de tamales. Antes de ir a recoger mi orden, volví hablar a pedir otra orden de 2 dozenas de tamales. La supervisora (Carina) no me digo nada de la tardanza de mi orden nomas digo que yo ya tenía que ver recogido mi orden. Hoy, cuando llegue a recoger mi orden no estaba lista. La ordene a las 9am y tenía que ver estado para me de 11-12 del día. Se les fue la luz, no avisaron. Digieron que tuviera que esperar 40 minutos, o me podrían subsidiar otra cosa. You decidí esperar. So ojalá estará list para...

Loved this place as a kid cause of the decor but growing up l can't tell if shrinkflation and deminishing food quality & service knocked this place down a few pegs since or if nastolgia kept me from realizing it was always so meh. I ordered the ordené especiale with carné asada, arroz y frijoles. Not even kidding, it took half an hour and more for some others. Ppl standing all over the place, wherever they could without being in the way and two tables full of ppl, all sitting and standing together waiting on our orders, literally bonding with each other over how long we had to wait, forced to basically talk to and acknowledge each other since we're all crammed waiting for our food. You're probably thinking well they're obviously over whelmed with the rush of customers which is probably fair, but definitely didn't help that their microphone is terrible and they would endlessly...and angrily yell the same order number into the mic when ON ONE could understand them in English or Spanish...they were better off yelling the numbers without the mic lol but then l get the food and besides the carne asada being kinda flavorless it was cold and tough. How you gonna take that long and it not serve it hot off the grill? I mean if you need to take your time, fine but what's up with the shoe leather? At least give it to me fresh. Idk cause basically like tacobell, it's all basically the same ingredients, you know your choice of meat, rice and beans and maybe some veggies and you're choice of sauce so idk how it takes THAT long. Plus when l got it it was such a small amount. I could have just ordered a burrito and gotten the same amount wrapped in a tortilla for almost half the price so l kinda felt jipped but l ordered the special because l vaguely remembered my dad either telling me they give you such a tiny burrito for the price or that their burritos have gotten tinier over the years while their prices have gone up...and they charge for a little tiny thing so yeah that's lame, I'll probably just be hitting the street corners next time I'm in the mood for...

I guess this is one of the better/best Mexican places to go to in LA (according to my friend who's a native of LA), especially since it's open 24/7. The menu (just) looked good. My friend and I ordered some items late at night. I'm not sure if the cashier understood what we ordered, but all I know is she charged us $2.75 for one item of large salsa (which is actually just really hot sauce). But we also got 2 small hot sauces. Initially, we said hot sauce to her and she asked if we wanted small. My friend had said yes, and then I said to get large. I'm not sure if there was miscommunication (probably was)...but $2.75 for a "large" hot sauce? The container wasn't even large. It's those regular containers (2 sizes, small and large) that other restaurants usually give out free at their salsa bar. I disliked how this place did not have a salsa bar. They're either being really cheap about it and want to profit or the customers abuse it and take more than they should (home).

Customer Service: Good enough to get by. At least they make their food fast. There can be a line, but it goes by rather quickly. They take cash and card now, which is a plus. It used to be just cash.

Environment: Not that tidy, and the male customers may make comments towards the women; we encountered this. And I was actually surprised that the restrooms were actually pretty clean.

Food: I tried the Carne Asada burrito and the Carne Asada Nachos with Cheese. The burrito was okay. The nachos were whatever. Just looking at it did not look appealing. The cheese looked so artificial. I didn't like the taste much. The "salsa" helped the flavor, but too bad it was just hot sauce. Real salsa would've made everything taste much better. I can tolerate really hot sauce, but I can tell you it was really really hot. Their sauce burned my eyes and mouth, so those who can't handle really hot...